Jim Beauregard's Tasting Notes: Gluten-intolerant? Brewers hear you

We begin today with your small intestine ... and what can go wrong with it.

Celiac disease, the Mayo Clinic says, is "a digestive condition triggered by consumption of the protein gluten, which is primarily found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust and many other foods containing wheat, barley or rye.

"People with celiac disease who eat foods containing gluten experience an immune reaction in their small intestines, causing damage to the inner surface of the small intestine and an inability to absorb certain nutrients. Celiac disease can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea.

The cause is not well understood, but is known to sometimes run in families, and there is, at present, no cure for it. Celiac disease, which also goes by the names celiac sprue, nontropical sprue and gluten-sensitive enteropathy, is basically an immune system reaction to gluten; it can be well-managed with diet changes, avoiding foods that contain gluten.

This brings me to the topic of today's column: Gluten-free beer. It's in the Oxford Companion to Beer, right between glucose (as a building block of starch) and glycogen (a carbohydrate). We are seeing a steadily increasing supply of gluten-free beers coming on the market in New Hampshire for those who would like a beer, but can't drink it the standard ones because of the presence of gluten, which occurs in the most common beer ingredients, barley and wheat, as well as some types of rye.

To make a gluten-free beer then, one has to go to plants that don't contain it, and these include so-called "grist materials" from malted sorghum, buckwheat and common millet.

These are all known, in beer lingo, as "adjuncts," that is, something used to replace some or all of the malt used in making a beer.

How are they? Let's take a look at a few I found at Bert's Better Beers in Hooksett:

So, we are of on the gluten-free quest. We'll continue next week with a few more.

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Changing the subject to wine: Züm Riesling, Mosel, Germany $12.99. The Mosel is known for the more delicate and light Rieslings that grow on the river's steep hillsides. This one is clear in the glass, pale lemon-gold, with a clean nose of fruit and a little development.

Off-dry on the palate, weighing in in Spätlese or Auslese range, with medium alcohol (10%), medium body, medium-plus flavor intensity and flavors of green apple that really comes through on the palate, lemon-citrus and some slight melon hints.